The Okanagan is one of my many favourite weekend retreats and this weekend was no exception. The weather was (mostly) fabulous, good family time, good eats, and a fun wine `tweet-up` with @AllisonMMarkin in Penticton to top it off.

We had good intentions on Good Friday to find kosher beef and make matzo ball soup to go with the Kosher wine that I had procured to give a nod to passover, but after a day of visiting, we lazily grilled up some thick juicy un-blessed steaks, veggies, and potatoes. The wine was a Galil Mountain Pinot Noir that, although we failed in keeping our meal kosher, rocked that steak hard. I had first come in contact with the Galil Mountain wines at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine festival at the only Isreali wine booth. I found the overall flavour of the wine very unique. I picked up dark cherry, cinnamon, and tobacco notes on the pinot noir.  It wasn`t huge on the fruit and had soft tannins which made it easy to enjoy on its own as well.  Needless to say, the bottle was gone very quickly.

Saturday dinner was at The Gasthouse on the Lake… one of the best German restaurants I have been to. It is a must if you are passing through Peachland.  If you are in the area (or more likely driving through) stop in for a beer on the patio, or make reservations for some fine dining. Their wine list is very extensive, but I ended up ordering a Long Island Ice Tea when no one else was willing to share a bottle and the by the glass didn`t appeal to me.  I broke tradition from ordering Schnitzel to try out a beer braised roast and was not disappointed with the tender, flavourful roast.  I missed the veggies that I saw on everyone else`s plates, though.

Before we headed home on Sunday, we stopped in Penticton to visit with Allison Markin (THE Penticton Wine twitterer) for some lunch and a little wine tour.  I find that wine tours are best when they are little because it isn`t long before the wines start all tasting the same and it all blurs together….  We started off at Township 7.  We were all pretty familiar with the wines, but I wanted to lurk around a little.  We sampled some whites:  Brent liked the Semillon and I liked sniffing the chardonnay (so spicy!).  We tweeted Brad Cooper:  `we are in ur cellar, drinkin ur wine`.  And when we were ready to leave, we found Brent hanging with the horses.

Next stop was Red Rooster where we greeted `Frank` with all of his baggage and controversy and tried their line up.  They are known for their featured local artists, and you can taste wines while wandering their gallery.  I enjoyed each of the wines equally so I eeny meeny`d and ended up with the Reserve Merlot.  The chocolatey notes won me over anyways.  We made a quick stop in at Hillside Estates to snag a Muscat Ottonel which is the perfect sushi wine and the final stop was Elephant Island to sample some of their award winning orchard wines.  I adored the possibilities of mixing martinis with the Apricot and Black Currant dessert wines because very soon they will feature drink mixing recipes from their bartending challenge on their website.  Can you say drink mixing party at my place? La piece de resistance was the Stella Port made with an 8 year old solera system and aged in french Oak Barrels.  We loved the chocolate covered cherry flavour, and I was reminded of a cedar sauna.

We bid farwell to our new friend and headed back home with a little bit to add to our stash of wine.  I really can`t wait to get back to the Okanagan already!  For more Okanagan wine enthusiasm, there is both a facebook group(Okanagan Wine Casual) and some tweets (@okwinecasual).

Wow!  This week has been incredible and now that it is Sunday night I am going to try to sum it all up for you.  There were some great wine highlights, food, and interesting encounters.  This will be a longer post than usual as I am attempting to cram in most of my week.

I attended more consumer tastings in this week, than I have attended period.  I have only been to a few years of Playhouse Wine Fests and thinking back to my first, I have come a long way… especially because I had my gall bladder removed 3 days earlier and I didn’t have enough sense to spit.  A little wiser now, I still didn’t spit very much but I tasted with more selectivity and restraint.  I am slightly ashamed to admit that I wore a white and black coat on Thursday night (mostly due to lack of time to change beforehand) and managed to avoid any spillage.  If you follow me on Twitter, you will occasionally hear about my unsightly, bib-requiring eating habits.

I focused Thursday’s consumer tasting mostly on, you guessed it, whites.  And bubblies.  A few BC whites grabbed my attention such as Cedar Creek’s Ehrenfelser (highly aromatic with nice residual sweetness), Road 13 Jackpot Chardonnay (I finally got to try it, and you should too), and Twisted Tree Viognier Roussane.  My (short) attention was distracted by the ’shiny’ bubblies and I managed to try some knock-yourself-out-blow-your-mind-deep-pocket sparkling wines.  Topping my list is Champagne Deutz 1998 Vintage Cuvee William.  At $175.99 a bottle, I couldn’t pass up sampling this one and going back throughout the week to sneak a few more.  I adored the honey, nutty, and breadiness.  I ran over to try out Piper Heidseck 2000 Vintage Brut when a friend mentioned that it was like butter popcorn.  I love popcorn.  I loved Piper Heidseck.

Some interesting BC sparking wines were Elephant Island’s Pink Elephant which is very much like a Kir Royale,  Township 7’s Seven Stars Sparkling with pear and apple notes, and Blue Mountain’s Brut Gold Label.

Friday’s trade tasting proved more conducive to sampling and chatting with the winemakers, principals, and exhibitors.  I took the opportunity to try out some BC wines that I hadn’t quaffed before and was not disappointed with what I found!  One of my favourite wineries from Friday is Stoneboat Vineyards who was showcasing their pinot-rific wares.  Upon visiting with the owners and growers of this 3 year young winery, I learned that they are not as new to the scene as their label is.  Lanny Martiniuk has been growing for large wine producers since 1983 and his tennure shows in the quality of his wines.  The pinot noir is a full bodied, spicy, fruity, contender; but once you try the Pinotage you will find out why they call it, “a pinot on steroids”.  The pinotage packs a wallop.

After the trade tasting and then pouring in the hospitality suite, I had a bite to eat with some colleagues and dragged my aching body home to get a little rest before Saturday.  Drinking wine is serious business and not for the faint of heart, but insoles and jetted tubs, I determined are very necessary.

Saturday morning, I rushed out to the press conference and then took a very entertaining cab ride to Dockside at Granville Island for the Aussie Barbie.  By entertaining, I mean the driver sang to me, and told me stories that I shant repeat here or anywhere else for that matter.

I found the perfect wine to pair with Kangaroo.  No lie.  Bleasedale Frank Potts Cabernet-Malbec-Shiraz-Merlot Reserve was a perfect match. It made me return a few times for more and for some of their Sparkling Generations Reserve Shiraz.  Oh yeah, and I did I mention that I ate kangaroo?  Seriously.  Lean like elk or bison but not as gamy and reminded me a little of a tender jerky.  I don’t know where you can find the stuff, but if you can find a place that cooks it just right let me know!

I was fascinated by the differences in a Cabernet Sauvignon from the western coast of Australia and the more fruit forward Peter Lehman Cabernet Sauvignon from the south eastern region.  By the way, if you didn’t get a chance to meet the winemaker, he is the friendliest most jovial man who was the only exhibitor to walk around with his wines to refill peoples’ glasses while they ate.  Another regional favourite is the Verdhelho by Tyrell Wines.  A portugese grape that is new to the region and has some lovely lemon and green apple notes and is also used in white port.  White port?!  That was my response.  I hadn’t even heard of it and now I am off to find some and read up on it.  I also took some advice to check out the Two Hands booth which was ‘hands down’ some of the finest Australian wines this year at the festival.

My final exposure to the consumer tasting was on Saturday night.  This was date night so I left my cell phone and any agenda behind and let my fiance do most of the leading with a little gentle backseat driving by yours truly.  He is a very sympathetic wine taster.  By that I mean that he seeks out the tables that look ‘lonely’ and feels that he has accomplished his mission when he leaves after a crowd draws up.  He did learn that sometimes, just sometimes, there was a reason why the tables were quiet, but there were a few really nice surprises.  Surprises like a wine that tastes like coffee (KWV Cafe Culture Pinotage 2008) because of the toasted barrels and the wood maturation.  I liked the uniqueness of it, and he didn’t care for a wine pretending to be something that it isn’t.  Another winery that we both really liked for its uniqueness was Galil Mountain & Yarden, the only Israeli wines featured at the festival.  We both really enjoyed the Galil Mountain Yiron Cabernet-Merlot-Syrah 2005; the characteristics of the fruits and cloves made for a refreshing blend.  We left just before 10pm and barely found the strength to drag ourselves back home, but before we left we stocked up on Terra Breads, Freybe meats, cheeses, Ritter Chocolates, and free water.

I have talked to several people about their impressions of the wine festival.  While most people raved about how much they love to have an opportunity to discover for themselves new wines and new regions, some people were confused by the alphabetical set up this year, and some felt that the prices for the consumer tastings are getting too high.  I do hope that people wishing to learn about wines take opportunities throughout the year to do so. I suggest attending informative events and tastings and also attend the smaller events during the Wine festival to get the most exposure.  Keep an eye out on my events page for local events to attend while you brush up in preparation for next year’s Playhouse Wine Festival.

The pleasure was all mine when I met Bradley Cooper and his wife the other day to sample his latest creation.  You may know Brad by the famed wines that he has produced for Township 7 Winery; heralded for his ability to transform a BC Syrah into a nectar compared to those from Northern Rhone or for the sparkling wines compared to a Gloria Ferrer.  But this time, I was sampling something very different;  not in quality but in name.

You see, not long ago Brad joined up as a winemaker for a fellow to make wine for a new label.  Due to economic instability and other factors it ended abruptly with a large stock of wine and no winery to put on the label.  After considering keeping a small portion of the wine to cover the final bills, Brad and his wife decided to make lemonade out of this dark and disappointing situation.  They say the experience was like a “Black Cloud” over them, and once they decided to purchase back the remaining lot of the wine that he produced, they begun to see a “silver lining”.

Hence, the name Black Cloud was bestowed upon the wine.

Black Cloud - Pinot Noir 2006

It was a relatively quick turn around from the time the deal fell through to its recent release.  During those four months there were a lot of t’s to cross and i’s to dot and with the generosity of Mike Raffan of Township 7, Brad was able to complete the necessary requirements through them.

You aren’t going to find this wine in a big press release or in many stores… yet.  Brad is using this release as a bit of a social media experiment.  This approach has less overhead than major press releases, and it relies largely on reputation and recommendation.  Brad already has garnered the reputation of a trusted wine maker, and he is spreading the news of this new wine ‘virally’ (meaning through networks of people on various social media outlets)  such as: Twitter, Blogging, Linked in, etc.  After having experienced the wine for myself, I personally believe this wine is going to develop a bit of a cult following.

I opened my bottle with some friends last night to get a variety of opinions on this wine.  At first, we noticed a slight disconnect with the nose to the taste.  The nose was heavy like a sherry and the taste was mildly earthy.  After about half an hour, it opened up into beautiful black cherry, blackberry, and blueberry flavours.  I loved the smokiness of a cigar in the finish.  It maintained its familiar pinot-earthiness and we savoured every sip until the bottle was empty. A lovely example of a new world Pinot Noir.

This wine has influences of the Oregon and New Zealand style of Pinot Noir:

New Zealand Pinot noir is fruit-driven, forward and early maturing in the bottle. It tends to be quite full bodied (for the variety), very approachable and oak maturation tends to be restrained. High quality examples of New Zealand Pinot noir, particularly from the Martinborough region, are distinguished by savoury, earthy flavours with a greater complexity. (Wikipedia)

Where  can you find it?  It is currently on the shelves at Broadway International Wine Shop and Whatcom Wine and Spirits.  I doubt it will be there for long, and if they happen to sell out before you procure your own you can contact Brad through his Blog or through Twitter.

What can we expect in the future from Black Cloud?  This wine will have another vintage of Pinot Noir, and likely a white to compliment it.  Brad has quite a few ideas up his sleeve, and I trust that we will not be disappointed.  He has transformed a black cloud, to one with a silver lining, to one that I expect will garner a golden reputation.